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August 31, 2005
Nothing new
Nothing really exciting going on, but its been a few days so I figured Id drop in a note. Our platoon is moving to another camp, Camp Slayer, which is not too far from where I am now on Liberty - its part of the same large complex around the airport. Anyway, the area we will be working from is a hill that overlooks the entire city. On days like today, when the dust is low, the views are amazing. Ive taken some photos and when my laptop gets here, I will be uploading them.
Posted by TJ at 05:45 PM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2005
Body Armor
I honestly do not know what the fuss in the MSM is about the body armor issue. I have to say that I firmly agree with Secretary Rumsfeld's comment that you "Go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had." During the past few years, the Pentagon has done alot to supply us with more and better armor, but the whole process can't happen overnight. My unit (10th Mountain Division, 1st Brigade) was completely outfitted with kevlar vests, neck guards and groin protectors that are rated for shrapnel and 9mm. We also got SAPI (small arms protective inserts) plates that are rated to stop a 7.62 mm round, which is what the AK-47 fires.
Now we have part of underarm/side body and upper arm protection, and although we dont have the kevlar inserts for them yet, they are comming. Now I hear the Marines are testing an underwear-type kevlar pair of shorts.
There is a line that is rapidly being approached where all this extra armor actually increases the likelyhood of injury to the soldier. My armor weighs over 20 lbs, add to that my weapon, ammunition, 3 liters of water, Combat Life Saver equipment, etc and I am approaching 200 lbs. I weigh 150 normally. Eventually, the soldier will slow down and be easier to hit.
Remember the uproar over the armor on the Hum Vee's? The armor raised the center of gravity of the vehicle and slowed them down. Enough so that there were initially more rollovers, until the drivers got used to driving them. Unfortunately, I do not have a diesel engine inside me and adding these 11lb shorts and arm protectors will seriously inhibit me, weight-wise and bulk-wise.
I think I may submit a cartoon suggestion to Cox and Forkum about this...
Posted by TJ at 12:41 PM | Comments (1)
Food
One thing Ive noticed is that alot of the food here is alot better than in the US. Notably prepackaged foods and specifically those that contain sugar. In the US, you will usually see corn syrup listed near the top of the ingredients; but corn isnt native to this part of the world so they use sugar. Believe me, the Coke and ice cream taste a whole lot better here.
Posted by TJ at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2005
Baghdad
Well, I made it to Baghdad finally. C-17 took off on only the 3rd time we thought we would be leaving during the last few days and there were 10 of us accompanying some vehicles. The housing here is much better. 2 of us per room and 3 rooms per air-conditioned trailer. When I get my E-5 (maybe next month) I will get a bigger room. The temperature is 5-10 less than Kuwait and there are trees and grass here! Guess one can even be made to see the bright side of this place.
The base is huge - actually the airport and a few bases are all interconnected into one large complex, and security seems good. Im not too worried about anything as long as I am on post. No word yet on if/when I will be leaving the wire for missions.
Posted by TJ at 01:03 PM | Comments (1)
August 18, 2005
Random stuff
Yesterday was the hottest day yet. Even with the A/C blasting in our tent it was 96. Rumors had it in the upper 120s or even 130 but I cant confirm that for sure.
Been to 2 ranges and fired a total of 5 rounds - whoop... Today Im going to one to fire the Mark 19, a 40mm automatic grenade launcher, so that should be fun.
Heading to Baghdad in a week or so.
Posted by TJ at 05:01 AM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2005
Kuwait
Quick note to say I made it to Kuwait. Long trip with lots of formations and lots of "hurry up and wait". I guess its important though that everyone gets exactly what they need then and not find out later they missed something.
Weighed in at the airport with all our carryon equipment and I was 221 lbs! (normally about 150)
Not much else, except when we were landing we got the usual weather report from the pilot. 113 degrees.
Posted by TJ at 02:25 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2005
For the Record
This Cindy Sheehan story has me going a bit, although I dont believe my parents would ever do something like that to me because they know how I feel. However, I wanted to go on the record because by writing this blog, I have become sort of a public figure and someone may try to dig through my archives here or at my old site at Virtual Sanity and do just that sort of thing online.
I feel we are doing the right thing. I will be adding a "best of" page where you will be able to read my 9/11 and other postings. When I enlisted, there were many reasons which led me to the Army, but in the end, had 9/11 not happened, I would not be here. Despite the hysterics you hear on some MSM sources about IEDs and VBIEDs and our military members being injured and dying, we are better off today than had we done nothing. The 9/11 commission may not have been able to find an explicit connection between Iraq and the 9/11 operation, the MSM neglects to mention that they did find numerous connections between Hussein's regime and Al Qaeda: safe harbor, training, financing, etc. Since we have gone in, Iraq has indeed become a magnet for terrorists. GOOD. I would much rather go there myself: trained, expecting to be targetted and having the ability to fight back, than have them come here and target my unprepared family and friends.
We went to Iraq for more than just WMDs, although some would have you believe that is all the President spoke of in that now-famous state of the union address. Among other reasons, he also mentioned removing a training-ground for terrorists and removing the man who gave $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
In the end, we freed about 50 million people from tyrranical regimes and history will determine if we have done it well. Unfortunately, we live in the right here, right now information age and even after a week after the war started, there were reporters calling Iraq a quagmire. Please. Get a little perspective. We still have troops in Germany and Japan.
This is not something I want to do, but I feel it is something I have to do. All I have to do is think of my oldest niece, who was born 2 days before I left for basic. Someday, I hope to have children of my own and I would rather face what might happen to me now than have to live with what could happen to them, and know I did nothing.
The people we are fighting understand only 1 thing: might, and the only way to defeat them is to destroy them. Negotiation is a sign of weakness in their eyes - you need not look farther than Israel where each time they make a concession, violence increases against them.
Iraq is a hornets nest that we are removing. When you first start to spray the hive, the bees go nuts and swarm and are indeed quite frightening - but not for long. Eventually, most of them die and the nest can be removed. Sure, some get away to build again, but this is our first real anti-terrorism action since November 1979. If we remain vigilant, the smaller nests will be a lot easier to remove.
Posted by TJ at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)
SAW Gunner
Just found out yesterday that I will be carrying a SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) while in Iraq. Should be cool, but that thing is heavy.. 12 lbs or so without ammunition. Guess I will be a hard target now anyway :)
Posted by TJ at 04:35 PM | Comments (1)
August 09, 2005
Heading out
OK. It may be a while before I am able to post again. My Internet access will be cut tomorrow afternoon and by the beginning of September, I will be in Baghdad. I invite you all to come back here to read about what is going on and I hope to have some interesting stories.
Posted by TJ at 11:45 PM | Comments (2)